Food, urine, and feces as radiation shield for Mars mission

The Inspiration Mars team planning to send a couple on a fly-by mission to Mars in 2018 have an idea of how to protect the astronauts from cosmic rays on the long journey: pack the walls of the spaceship with food, shit, and piss. "Dehydrate (the human waste) as much as possible, because we need to get the water back," team member Taber MacCallum told New Scientist. "Those solid waste products get put into a bag, put right back against the wall… (Also,) food is going to be stored all around the walls of the spacecraft, because food is good radiation shielding." The food he adds, would block the cosmic rays but wouldn't become radioactive itself.

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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wastrel

This seems like a lot of trouble for a visit to Mark’s.
urpBurp

Marks house is gonna be busy… and stinky.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Scott-Ackerman/609114513 Scott Ackerman

Food, shit, and piss. In other words, almond pie from IKEA.
M Carlson

Doesn’t Mark have a bathroom of his own?
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

Totally right that food is good radiation shielding. Long carbon chains in lipids are good at stopping beta particles without re-emitting any other type of radiation. Plastics are even better. Remember that next time some moon hoaxer says the moon missions had nothing but a few sheets of plastic as shielding. Plastic is good shielding for the types of radiation that can cause the worst damage to humans.
- awjt
  
  I bet you live in one of those vinyl-sided houses, dontcha?
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
    
    How’d you know I was paraphrasing the siding salesman?
paprika5alt

Marks is awesome. He’s got a Hi Fi and a huge plasma.
Ramone

PERFECT lunchtime reading here in the central time zone! ;)
archvillain

“The food would block the cosmic rays but wouldn’t become radioactive itself.”
It kinda of depresses me that physics this basic needs to be explained. (I guess the thinking is that people are used to radiation dangers referring to fallout incidents, such as from power-plants.)
- Snig
  
  Before you get too depressed and too happy about your physics acumen, you might want to read up on bremsstrahlung.
  - http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness
    
    Bremsstrahlung is a problem with beta rays hitting metals which then immediately emit X-rays. Low power x-ray machines like at the dentist fire an electron gun at a lead target. X-rays come out and most of the rays not going all in one direction are stopped by leaded glass.
    
    if you are talking about something becoming radioactive I believe you are thinking of neutron absorption.
    
    One thing I liked about Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the reactor accident in Japan is that they always made a clear distinction between “radiation” and “release of radioactive material”. The former is a threat only if you were very near the plant. The latter is much more serious, as ingestion of even a small amount of radioactive material can have serious health consequences.
    - Snig
      
      The full quote from the article was “This wouldn’t be dangerous as the food would merely be blocking the radiation, it wouldn’t become a radioactive source.” What I think he’s emphasizing is that food and water are good, but that metal isn’t always ideal radiation shielding due to bremsstrahlung. Most of us think of ships as being built of metal. In actuality they all would emit bremsstrahlung, hence being sources of radiation, but that emitted by metal would be more dangerous as it would be shorter wavelength and more penetrating. So I believe he is referencing a finer point of radiation protection, and not just dumbing it down to talk to the yokels.
  - archvillain
    
    You shouldn’t assume everyone else is motivated by smugness, it reflects poorly on you. Your guess as to how to interpret the quote is not mine.
    - Snig
      
      Likely so, I may be reading mustache twirling and evil grimacing into it that was not your intention. I don’t know why I would misconstrue your motives, Mr. Archvillain.
      - archvillain
        
        Fair enough. For the record, the context I was cuing off was “cosmic rays”. I associate beta more with solar activity, which they talked about separately.
        (Yes I know about secondary particles from cosmic radiation. I’ve built weapo^D^D^D instruments to harnes^D^D^D detect them. *mustache twirl* )
      - Snig
        
        I’m actually quite grateful for your comment, as it allowed me to work the word “bremsstrahlung” into a sentence. Almost as pleasurable as when I was able to namedrop the only known non-human reservoir of Hansen’s disease, when the topic came up at a family gathering. Armidilloes, if you were wondering.
David Pescovitz

I fixed my typo. Sorry to ruin the fun.
- katkins
  
  Kinda sad/memorial fun. Wish we could take a trip to Mark’s.
- paprika5alt
  
  Hey man, you know its Marks thing. Better talk to the man himself.
theophrastvs

in the freaky sci-fi short story “Scanners Live in Vain” c1950 Cordwainer Smith writes about early efforts of space travel wherein space itself induced intractable pain, so there were ostensibly two solutions: either a space-traveler had all their sensory nerves surgically cut (producing a “Haberman”) or one could line the walls of one’s space-ship with living ‘oysters’, which grow to confluence, and they would absorb the pain ..fields(?). So just replace oysters with excreta and Cordwainer’s quirky genius is sort’ve realized. ((never much liked oysters anyway))
- http://mysite.verizon.net/~vze2tmhh/ pduggie
  
  Yes, Adam Stone conquered the Pain of Space!
- Preston Sturges
  
  There were all sorts of worries about whether the Van Allen Belts would fatally irradiate astronauts, and Earl Holliman did that Twilight Zone episode about an astronaut losing his mind in a simulated 20 day trip to the moon.
  
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Where_Is_Everybody%3F
  
  There was endless speculation about whether people could survive in orbit.
awjt

Why does it have to be a man and a woman? Why can’t it be a man and a man or a woman and a woman?
- cwcaton
  
  They probably want data on both a man’s physiology and a woman’s physiology after the long trip.
- Bradley Robinson
  
  We established this in a previous installment.
Bradley Robinson

Shitsulation takes a little of the polish off of “hot space sex.” At least for me.
- jandrese
  
  For what its worth, I don’t think this means you’re going to have to smear the walls with feces on your trip to Mars. You’re going to use your space toilet and it will get pumped into some cavity you can’t see.
  - Bradley Robinson
    
    But it is there.
    
    For what it’s worth.
    - http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
      
      The fact that the interior of the capsule is essentially a slightly large port-a-potty seems like more of a mood-killer.
      - Antinous / Moderator
        
        I guess you don’t cruise carnies.
      - http://www.facebook.com/people/Robert-Drop/100000929402049 Robert Drop
        
        That’s a safe assumption. ;)
        I should have made explicit my caveat *assuming being near lots of fecal matter is a turn off. Because that capsule is going to smell like space-farts. And they’re the deadliest. (Also I imagine any thrills gained by enacting one’s furtive couplings in rest-rooms are going to disappear when you live in a port-a-potty.)
    - Halloween_Jack
      
      Bradley, I am about to blow your mind, man. You know dirt? The stuff that you’ve walked on all your life? In fact, a synonym for “earth”? 100% worm shit, dude.
  - skeptacally
    
    wait, i thought i pumped it OUT of a cavity i couldn’t see.
    
    also: ew.
  - Halloween_Jack
    
    it will get pumped into some cavity you can’t see.
    
    Whoa, that’s hot.
Robert Cruickshank

I think the mental trauma caused by flying to Mars in a Hitachi Magic Wand lined with poo would be worse than any radiation.
- Bradley Robinson
  
  I find the notion of flying through space in an enormous sex-toy the furthest thing from traumatic.
  
  S’up?
  Chillin. You?
  Flying giant space vibrator to Mars.
  Dude.
  
  But you’ve a valid point with the dirty walls by Hu Phlung Pu.
SomeGuyNamedMark

Shields up Mr Sulu! Everyone flush!
Aye captain.
- jandrese
  
  We need a giant Number Two, Number One.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

Great. Thanks a lot. Thanks to this article, from now on I’m going to think of that bulbous chamber tacked to the front of the capsule as a giant toilet float.
http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

Who knew the (awesome) album “Planet P Project” was so prophetic?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planet_P_Project
Bradley Robinson

The Vulcans will be mortified.
Frank Diekman

They should film it for a new A & E show: Hoarders – In Space.
- Gilbert Wham
  
  Riffing on A&E, I always thought James White’s Sector General books would make a great TV show.
Cowicide

George Lucas is going to have to update what his Star Wars explosions look like.
- welcomeabored
  
  Talk about explosive diarrhea…!
- http://twitter.com/writebastard Ian Wood
  
  God dammit no more updating of anything by George.
- Preston Sturges
  
  It’s a crap!
- rocketpj
  
  That’s no moon…
welcomeabored

However assured that the recycled water was clean, I’d still have the suspicion that I could smell a hint of poo in every sip.
- http://glitch.tl/ Michael Smith
  
  You have reminded me of the alien designed food recycler on Ringworld with its integrated toilet.
William Nicholls

Sleight of hand bullshit headline. Using waste as radiation shielding is just as a replacement for the non-recycled fraction of the the thick wall of water that’s actually the main shield. That two-foot thick wall of water would be enormously expensive to ship into space from Earth. The excremental increment of radiation protection would be tiny, but this shit gets attention.
http://www.fieldsovgravity.com/ Garymon

Lets just hope we don’t make first contact while in this ship because first impressions matter.
- Halloween_Jack
  
  The first alien ship that fires upon it is gonna get a biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig surprise.
  - SomeGuyNamedMark
    
    They’re in for a real shitstorm
http://evilbobdayjob.blogspot.com/ Deidzoeb

Donovan better get to work revising “The Intergalactic Laxative” song.

http://youtu.be/iab9YKocUcw
http://orbitnet.com JIMWICh

This really brings a whole new meaning to the term, “Sh*t-canned.”
awjt

God, I’d take the trip just to take a dump on Mars. That would be EPIC.
- rocketpj
  
  Well, if you held it that long…
Ryan Lenethen

Scotty we need more power to the shields!

I’m tryin’ captin, but she ain’t got no more in her!

Bonus for Scotty being a brand of TP.